The De Zalze Murders. Julian Jansen
does not grasp the full meaning of the shocking news at first.
André and his wife Sonja start a WhatsApp group to keep the extended family abreast of developments.
Members of the media still thronging the main entrance in the late-afternoon sun are enormously relieved when Eben Potgieter, chairman of the De Zalze homeowners’ association, and Boet Grobler, the estate manager, finally invite them in for a news conference.
Immediately after the bodies in the house were discovered, Eben says, he instructed the security convenor on the estate to establish whether the perimeter fence had been breached in any way. He emphasises that there is no sign of forced entry into the estate. No one signed the visitors’ register to visit Goske Street the previous day or night. According to him, there also seem to be no signs of a break-in at the house concerned. It appears to be an ‘isolated incident’. He is absolutely sure of that.
***
Earlier in the day the police took Henri in for questioning. To some detectives, the young man appeared quiet; although the shock may cause him to act strangely, they thought. Others recounted that he ‘reeked of alcohol’ and was ‘cocky at first’. But his attitude reportedly changed later when an officer remarked out of the blue that his sister had ‘started talking’.
In his witness statement, Henri said that an ‘unknown person’ attacked his family. He had been in the bathroom of the upstairs bedroom he shared with his brother. When he came out, he saw the intruder (whom he described in the statement) attacking his brother with an axe. He was too afraid to help his brother. The intruder subsequently attacked his father, and then his mother, and finally his sister.
He threw an axe at the attacker; a fresh mark on the wall substantiated this, he said. He fell on the stairs and was knocked out. Some time afterwards he regained consciousness and called the emergency services on his cellphone, according to his statement.
The sun has already set when André and his wife, Sonja, took Sasha, Marli’s beloved black dog from Australia, with them to their home in Welgelegen, about 17 kilometres outside Cape Town. There they watch the television news about the gory axe murders of a respected businessman, his wife and their elder son in their white double-storey home on a quiet street in an exclusive winelands golf estate.
Back in Somerset West, where Marli has in the meantime been transferred to the Mediclinic Vergelegen, surgeons battle to save the blonde girl’s life. If she survives, will she be able to talk? If so, what will her account of the night’s events be?
1 Transcript of recording of call to emergency services as broadcast on eNCA.
2
Final destination: The safe haven of De Zalze
THE VAN BREDA family’s relatives and friends experience the unthinkable: Martin and Teresa and their Rudi have been killed gruesomely and senselessly. Henri and his sister are now orphans, and he may ultimately be the only survivor of the tragedy because Marli’s condition is critical. She is under constant police guard in hospital; even her closest relatives are barred from visiting her.
Two of many questions keep gnawing like a cancer at those who love her: Who committed these acts? And why?
In the days that follow, Detective Constable Zuko Matho and his team search tirelessly for answers. Along with the forensic team and members of the Criminal Record Centre, they are busy at the crime scene day and night. The street remains cordoned off for three days, the house for an even longer period. Forensic evidence is collected painstakingly and unhurriedly. The constable records every step of the process in his book.
A police helicopter circles above the estate from time to time; an extensive search is coordinated from the air. It yields no results. The residents of De Zalze keep speculating, day after day.
The established residents know little about the Van Bredas. Eventually, however, friends and relatives open their hearts, and the ironic tale unfolds of a family that, after years in a ‘safer’ country, decided to return to South Africa and settle in this exclusive security estate.
A close friend of Teresa, Michelle Barnard,2 for instance, tells of their intimate friendship that stretched back to before the birth of their children. Michelle’s family and the Van Bredas saw a lot of each other when their children were young. ‘My kids were crazy about little Rudi. Then, when Marli was born, everything revolved around her. She was the centre of attention.’
Michelle speaks nostalgically of the times they spent together when both families lived in The Willows near Pretoria. ‘All three of their children were born there; first Rudi, then Henri. Teresa and Martin were overjoyed when the third child was a girl. Some of the kids later attended the Anton van Wouw Primary School. Marli was the sweet one, Rudi the achiever, and Henri the loner.’
Her heart tightens when she thinks of how her friend was butchered. They phoned each other regularly. On the morning of the murders, she tried fruitlessly to get hold of Teresa. Later she called another female friend, who told her: ‘Something terrible has happened. Teresa, Martin and Rudi were hacked to death … with an axe.’ Michelle collapsed next to the telephone.
She misses Teresa enormously. ‘I still can’t sleep. I keep thinking of the action. How do you take an axe … and you hack, hack, hack?’
***
About Martin, his friends are in agreement: He excelled at his work and became a wealthy man, always surrounded by his wife and three children. They were a close-knit family. Well looked after. Went on many holidays together – expensive ones. The children attended the best schools. He was strict but loving.
He established the Rudell Holdings Trust so that the children would be provided for after he and Teresa were gone. Rudi, Henri and Marli are named as the sole beneficiaries of the trust.
An entrepreneur par excellence, Martin acquired his wealth through a series of carefully planned and orchestrated moves – like a grand master at chess. He took after his father Bailey, who was equally successful in his day. Likewise, Martin’s identical-twin brothers, André and Bailey, are prominent businessmen, in Silver Lakes, Pretoria, and Mbombela (Nelspruit), Mpumalanga, respectively.
Martin matriculated at Kuswag High School in Amanzimtoti, KwaZulu-Natal. After obtaining a degree in civil engineering at Stellenbosch University, he completed his MBA degree at the University of Pretoria.
Business friends remember him as a real ‘visionary’ who exploited high-potential possibilities in education, home security and the property market. He had the ability to sniff out business opportunities, draw up business plans and implement them successfully.
Martin held directorships of various investment, property and education companies in Polokwane, Pretoria, Rustenburg and other places. He was also a director of Smartscan, which provides machine guarding and safety products.
Schools and good education were his passion; Woodhill College in Pretoria, which he established with great business acumen, was his pride. The school caters for pupils from grades R to 12 and has a Christian foundation. Martin was jubilant when he sold this baby of his to Curro Holdings for R185 million in 2012.
His concern about the high crime levels in the country prompted him to help find solutions. Accordingly he became a co-founder of Netstar, which supplies the technology for the tracking and recovery of stolen vehicles.
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It was reportedly love at first sight when Martin van Breda and Teresa du Toit met in 1983. Both of them worked in Pretorius Street in Pretoria at the time. Teresa, one of seven children, had grown up in the Johannesburg suburb of Florida. Encouraged by her father, Dr Rudi du Toit, she studied computer science at the Rand Afrikaans University (now the University of Johannesburg).
Teresa first worked for IBM and later in banking before she married Martin in Pretoria. According to Elna Venter, who had introduced the couple to each other, they were friendly, industrious Christians who systematically worked their way